Watching, naye, viewing Michael Wood’s essay about the British village of Kibworth since records began, A.D. 1086, with the Domesday Book, reminds me how I first fell in love with Britain. (It is only now being broadcast in the United States, BTW, I guess it was first broadcast on Channel Four in 2011.) Never having been successfully overrun by anyone, even the Romans ground to a halt somewhere around the Scottish border, and then were “assimilated” by about 410 A.D., England is perhaps the best documented, and least changed, of the countries I have been intimate with. Even my own bloodline only goes back to before 1634, something that only impresses Americans. 1634 is where the trace is lost, as there was no civil registry in The Netherlands before that date, and one’s bloodline has to be traced through church records. 1634 was when my 11th generation paternal ancestor, Evert Willems, was baptized – his parent, Willem Everts, my 12 generation ancestor, was recorded, but no baptismal records were found.… Read more